One man's voice Thoughts, rants and commentary of a simple man

What can He not do?

I got a call from my cousin Lisa a few minutes ago. This is not uncommon to be honest, except that I am rarely able to take the call because of the time she usually calls. But today I was able to take the call and I was overwhelmingly blessed by the words my cousin spoke to me.

In effect she called to tell me she was thinking about me and wanted to share Ephesians 3:20 with me. That particular scripture reads:

Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us,

In context, the scripture reads:

14 For this reason I bow my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,
15 from whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named,
16 that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might through His Spirit in the inner man,
17 that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love,
18 may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height--
19 to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.
20 Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us,
21 to Him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen.

Ephesians 3

You ever wonder how it is, at a particular time, that somehow the words that you needed to hear happen to appear to you?

God just knows
I think in His love for us God knows when we need to hear Him speak to us. If you follow this blog at all you know that the last year and a half or so have been very difficult for my family. Sandi was very sick for a long time, our finances have been under attack for a long time, our home has been under attack for a long time and things have generally been disheveled for a while. Even as recently as a few days ago I wrote about how things just keep coming up that require time, money, attention and brainpower that I cannot afford to offer at the moment.

It is in times like this that I tend to lean on my own human nature and move into the "toiling man" mode that God has put upon man. It is our nature to work and toil so as to earn. When things go wrong or wobbly my first reaction is to try to figure out what I need to do to right the ship. And I do believe that there is nothing wrong with this as long as guidance is sought from the Father through prayer. The scripture says "above all that we can ask or think". It would seem that to make this scripture applicable there would need to be some asking on our parts.

My biggest challenge is that I usually do not ask but steam ahead and try to figure everything out so that I can make things better. I get into a very heavy "why me?" mode and an even heavier "what now?" mode and I never seem to ever get into the "praise You" mode that I should be in first. And again, this is not uncommon. Man is, by his nature, a very independent working being that strives to make things work. That is what we do. God made us that way.

However, as a Christian, I have to say that we are also commanded to love the Lord with all our heart, all our soul and all our strength. Just like the friend we love more than anything else offers an ear and heart toward us when we come to that person, so God the father also lends His ear to us when we pray and seek Him. Many men in the Bible have fallen victim to their own nature in this. Moses, Issac, David, all of the disciples... each of them at one point or another leaned on their own ability unto failure before pursuing God's guidance unto success.

In the movie Facing the Giants the coach of the football team is going through some major trials. He is struggling. And he is failing the more he tries to do things on his own. Then he has a moment where he turns himself to God and seeks His guidance and his world just opens right up.

Now I know this is just a movie. And I know that there have been plenty of people that have never experience a supernatural move of the Lord like that. But I have. I know from experience that God moves when we seek Him. Yet I always manage to seek my own solution first instead of seeking the Kingdom the first (Matt 6:33).

Bottomless pit of wants and needs
Everyday I am reminded of all the things that I "need". Money, food, clothing, respect, attention, admiration, challenges. There is no end to the things that I know I need from a day. This precludes those things that I really need, like food for my family, electricity, water, warmth, etc.

Basic human necessity is a part of life. And God knows that:

25 "Therefore I say to you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink; nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing?
26 Look at the birds of the air, for they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?
27 Which of you by worrying can add one cubit to his stature?
28 "So why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin;
29 and yet I say to you that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.
30 Now if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will He not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?
31 "Therefore do not worry, saying, "What shall we eat?' or "What shall we drink?' or "What shall we wear?'
32 For after all these things the Gentiles seek. For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things.
33 But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.
34 Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.

Matthew 6

In the midst of trying to figure out solutions to my own issues, if I take the time to put God first, where He rightly belongs, and seek Him out before I seek out anything else, then all of my needs will be met. And how will they be met? Exceedingly and abundantly above whatever I can ask for or even think of.

God is so simple sometimes it hurts my head trying to figure Him out.

Thanks Lisa, for thinking of me enough to call and give me the prophetic word that I so desperately needed to hear today. It meant the world to me.